Lessons Learned from 6 Years in Entrepreneur Land

Lessons Learned from 6 Years in Entrepreneur Land

Next month marks the 6th anniversary of the WorkApp story – an amazing journey from a simple idea to a fully functioning, revolutionary platform growing stronger by the day.

So, I’ve been reflecting on the lessons learned along the way and thought I would share some of the biggest ones in the hope that it might help other budding entrepreneurs out there.

Here are six lessons learned for each of the six years we’ve been doing this:

1. Don’t wait until everything is perfect before you start – it’s never likely to happen because things are very rarely perfect. Instead, the key is to start with the mindset and confidence that you will be able to figure it out along the way. For me, without any tech experience whatsoever, it was on the job training from the word go.

2. Address the intellectual property, and legal details of any venture as the first priority. Trade marking your great idea is strongly advised. At WorkApp, we now have 17 international trademarks in place to safeguard our hard work.

3. Be prepared for things to take much longer to build than you think, especially when in comes to the technology business. A good rule of thumb is to take your original estimated timeframe for a technology project and then triple it! By that time, you should have things working smoothly and the inherent issues ironed out.

4. Keep the cost base of your venture very lean. Controlling costs is crucial for any start-up so you can survive the development phase and ensure your brilliant idea sees the light of the day.

5. From a personal perspective, be prepared to live well outside your comfort zone until it’s no longer uncomfortable!

6. Everyone’s a critic so be prepared to deal with them without letting their opinions deter your vision or alter your progressive action. Success comes from maintaining your own beliefs despite the knowledge that many others might not believe you can do it.